Angelina Simakova had quite a stressful month leading up to the European Championships. She was named to the team after winning the all-around at the Russian Championships, then, after her unfortunate performance at the Stuttgart team challenge, Valentina Rodionenko announced that Simakova would be replaced by Mustafina. When Mustafina declined to participate, Simakova got the spot again. She has been dealing with a ligament injury and has been allowed full training load only at the end of January which has affected her performance this season. In the all-around, she wisely downgraded her vault (after falls on this event at Worlds, Russian Championships, and Stuttgart team challenge) but had a fall on
Valentina Rodionenko was, unsurprisingly, unhappy about Simakova’s performance and did not hesitate to express this unhappiness to the media:
“I am not completely satisfied with how our gymnasts competed in the all-around. Simakova has disappointed me. She wasn’t able to show herself at the World Championships and now, in Szczecin, Angelina can’t fulfil her potential again. I’m not ruling out that we might need to look at younger girls. Melnikova had issues on beam again. It’s out problematic even, in general, none of our girls made it to the event final. Pay attention that Melnikova got 12.8 on beam without falls. That’s not ok.”
According to Rodionenko, nevertheless, Russian gymnasts do not have much of a competition in Szczecin:
“Two or three girls [can compete with them] and that’s it. We need to compete with the Americans, the Chines and the Brazilians.”
Rodionenko also commented on the results of Maria Paseka and Anastasiia Iliankova and expressed her unhappiness with the judging of Iliankova’s routine:
“Regarding Maria Paseka and Anastasia Iliankova competing on single events, everything was fine. Yes, Masha did her first vault badly but the second one ended up being great. She should be fine in the final. I think Iliankova was judged unfairly, she was competing first in the first subdivision and the judges went hard on her. This girl has an excellent routine which was performed greatly. It’s good that she ended up making the final but if she didn’t, with such a routine, this would be shameful for the judging. And Iliankova should show what she can do in the final, unless she makes a mistake.”
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I was seated just above her during the MAG and WAG AA. Even if I can’t speak Russian, I could see from her body language and tone that she wasn’t pleased with what she saw. Was it the judging, the quality of the Russians’ routines, the lack of competition or the conspiracy to make her team lose ? I don’t kno. But she looked very hard to please. Even if Russia so far has won 1 gold, 1 silver and 1 bronze in just 2 competitions.
Oh….and….I’m hoping Devillard upgrades to DTY in her final. If she duplicates her quals performance with the upgrade and Paseka performs a weak Cheng, I think she can snag gold.
I really want to see Iliankova nail that routine in the final. She has a legitimate shot at gold, but I”d be happy to see her land in any position on the podium.
I came here fully expecting to see Valentina expressing her displeasure about Simakova and she hasn’t disappointed me.